Customizable Chalkboard Banner from Wood Slices

It is no secret that I have a deep long-standing love affair with wood slices. I have a plethora of projects (like pumpkins and reindeer) where I’ve used wood slices and the fact I am seeing them more and more these days makes my heart happy.

So today, I once again present you with a wood slice project: A reusable chalkboard garland made of wood slices:

This project is in conjunction with a bunch of other fabulous bloggers and Hometalk, as part of the Home For Fall blog hop. (There are a bunch of links at the bottom of this post, so make sure you scroll all the way to the end!)
It all started with this tree branch that blew down in our neighborhood. If you recall I have a tiny backyard and so access to large branches or logs is extremely limited so this was a total score for me!
I loved this banner that Corey at Sawdust 2 Stitches created, but I didn’t want it to be only usable for only one holiday. I wanted more flexibility.. so I decided to go the chalkboard route. (Like this and this and this and this and this.. apparently I like chalkboards as much as I like wood slices!)

I used my miter saw to cut it into 3/4 inch slices (the branch was in really rough shape and if the slices were thinner they would fall apart)
Next I drilled a hole at the top of each one.
The wood was really hard so this took a lot longer than I thought it would.
Next I painted circles onto each slice with Rust-oleum’s chalkboard paint. I just eyeballed the circles although I could have cut a stencil out of contact paper if I wanted them to be perfect. Since the wood slices weren’t perfect, I wasn’t sweating it about the circles:
To hang them as a garland I tied a short segment of twine on each one. (At this point I thought how cute they would be as ornaments as well!!)
Then I used chalk (or a chalkboard marker) to personalize them.
For right now I decided on the phrase G-I-V-E T-H-A-N-K-S:
But I love the idea that I can use it for any season. Like Christmas:

But for now I’ve got my new rustic wood slice banner decked out for Thanksgiving! And (of course) i love it!